canning peppers??

Question

Looking through recipes, I have noticed a huge difference in vinagar to water portions. Anywhere to 5 parts vinagar to 1 part water or half and half. I am not looking to pickle peppers just to can mild banana peppers or Jalpeno peppers. What actually preserves peppers so they don't go bad after canning? Is it the vinagar or the air tight seal?? Should I be using pickling salt to preserve?

Answer 1

It's the pickling that preserves the peppers.

You should be using the Ball Blue Book recipe for canning peppers - there are a lot of recipes out there that are unsafe. Most of the time, you're OK, but sometimes, you end up killing everybody at a family reunion with botulism.

Answer 2

The vinegar is whats preserves the pepper. It is needed to produce the acid to keep the botulism down. If you have any canned jars that start to look cloudy or even milky, then they have gone bad. This can happen if your canning mix is not hot enough when you are filling the jars.

I make Greek style using Olive oil, vinegar, a little water and for salt I use a whole anchovy per jar. The Olive oil will harden when keeping the opened jar in the fridge but comes back to oil at room temp.